1-ton WWII-era bomb discovered near Marseille port
MARSEILLE, France (AP) — Officials in Marseille are evacuating an area around the French Mediterranean city's port so they can remove a 1-ton German bomb that dates to World War II.
Around 1,000 people have been asked to clear out Sunday. Boat traffic has been halted and access to several coastal roads blocked. The bomb will be taken to a military base to be detonated.
It was discovered a week ago by construction workers who accidentally pierced the explosive with their back hoe.
The regional government says the bomb's ignition system no longer works but the sheer amount of explosives — 1,400 pounds (650 kilograms) — made it dangerous.
The bomb was apparently buried by German soldiers, who had planned to destroy the city's port, as they retreated near the end of the war.
http://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2012/03/18/1-ton-wwii-era-bomb-discovered-near-marseille-port
Old munitions never die.
WWI mines did some damage in the Persian Gulf.
= new reply since forum marked as read
The stuff with fairly high radioactivity will haunt us forever. Plutonium is nasty because it is highly radioactive and takes a long time to decay. The most radioactive stuff only lasts for moments.
I give up. What is DU?
Post your own definition. I was speaking in generalities.
I am soooooo glad the Science Police are on duty.
When I was a kid she would tell me about living under the German occupation when there was almost no food and German soldiers everywhere. She described the bombing of the port by the allies when they destroyed much of the docks and the older part of the city. She said that instead of seeking shelter, the people were all out in the streets under the bombs cheering with joy. When the allies later landed as part of the southern version of D-Day and fighting raged throughout the city, the Germans did start destroying the old port but couldn't finish the job. They did destroy an internationally-famous landmark called le pont transbordeur, an engineering marvel of steel that spanned the old port, to jam sea traffic.
My mother's sister worked for the boss of Renault. His kids went out hiking in the hills above Marseille in about 1960, found a hand grenade left over from the fighting, and accidentally blew themselves up.
When I was a kid, my dad was transferred to the U.S. air force base in Bitburg, Germany in the mid 1950s. The other kids and I would play in old German foxholes and encampments that were everywhere. Under some bushes we found some heavy machine guns and their tripods along with ammo belts. It was too rusty to work but we played with it for weeks until our parents found out and freaked out.